1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the provision of communications services.
2. Description of Related Art
It is a problem in the field of Internet or IP telephony to provide customers with access to the telephone service without the need to have previously loaded and accurately configured Internet provider-specific telephony software on the customer""s accessing personal computer. As used herein, IP telephony refers to a process through which audio information corresponding to spoken words is digitized and transmitted/received from a remote location using the Internet for at least a portion of a route to/from that remote location. The remote location may correspond to a computer or a telephone handset. The PSTN may also be used for some or all of the route to/from the remote location.
Known internet telephony systems require users to install internet telephony software before the users can indicate that a call is desired. This is problematic, especially when a user is viewing a web page and wishes to contact an associated web merchant customer service representative. Known software programs, such as Dialpad, require the user to have pre-installed the Dialpad software, and further require the user to go to the Dialpad website and enter the web merchant""s telephone number.
Other systems partially solve these problems. For example, the system described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,144,670, 5,889,774, and 6,026,087, describe a system that supports a xe2x80x9cPush-to-Talkxe2x80x9d button on a merchant""s website and that alleviates the need to know or enter a merchant""s telephone number. However, while those patents discuss automatically starting internet telephony driver software at the user""s computer when the user pushes the xe2x80x9cPush-to-Talkxe2x80x9d button, they do not address the issue of how the driver software gets installed on the user""s computer in the first instance. Additionally, there is no ability to perform a screen pop (as used herein, screen pop refers to causing a display of information about the caller on a display associated with the called party). Still further, those patents mention that it would be desirable to synchronize a user""s personal computer display to the display of the called party so that common information may be viewed, but provide no disclosure of how to accomplish this non-trivial result.
Another known system is described in European Patent Office Publication No. 0,843,454A (European Patent App. No. 97308848.7). That system also suffers from many of the drawbacks mentioned above. For example, that system requires an end user, or client computer, to have a preinstalled xe2x80x9cinternet phonexe2x80x9d (presumably a software program). Additionally, while that system does provide a screen pop ability, the mechanism for accomplishing the screen pop is clumsy as the user is required to manually enter some form of identification information. Still further, that system provides no ability to synchronize a user""s computer display to a customer service representative computer display. Finally, the system does not provide the call center identifier necessary to place the call to a call center until the user indicates (e.g., by pressing on a button) a desire to place the call. This adds an undesirable delay to the time required to complete the call.
Thus, known Internet telephony systems represent an alternative to standard long distance telephone service, but presents a number of constraints to the end user. The above-identified problems are particularly troublesome in the field of e-commerce applications.
A further problem with existing systems is that they are not adapted to be used in a cellular communication environment, nor are they capable of initiating a directory assistance function and automatic connection to a designated called party.
The above described problems are solved and a technical advance achieved by the present universal Internet based telephony system which, in a preferred embodiment, is implemented as a process that is accessible via an Internet web page. The invention enables a phone call to be placed from a personal computer without the need for the computer to have been previously configured for Internet telephony. The customer may access the universal Internet based telephony system via any existing Internet browser software resident on the customer""s multimedia terminal device, such as a personal computer, either as an adjunct process thereon, or as a dedicated Internet telephony process. This is accomplished by presenting the universal Internet based telephony system to the customer as an accessible service option on any Internet web page, typically in the form of an icon presented thereon. Alternatively, the multimedia customer terminal device can be equipped with an icon which presents the universal Internet based telephony system to the customer as an accessible service option. When a customer, who has accessed the Internet web page either via the multimedia customer terminal device based icon or Internet browser, clicks on the universal Internet based telephony system, icon a universal Internet based telephony system hyperlink script causes a web server to download an applet to the customer""s personal computer to run on the client machine without disturbing the customer""s existing web page access. This is accomplished by opening up a separate window on the customer""s terminal device for the Universal Internet based telephony system, to be seen and operated by the user. The universal Internet based telephony system web site then extends the Internet telephony communication connection from the customer""s terminal device to an Internet telephony server/network, forwarding the customer provided data to enable the communication connection to be extended by the Internet telephony server/network to the designated destination. In some embodiments, a customer is prompted for destination information (such as a telephone number if the call is directed toward a telephone receiver on the PSTN) and account information. In other embodiments, service is directed toward a pre-determined destination, such as a xe2x80x9ccustomer servicexe2x80x9d icon accessible from an e-commerce web page.
Thus, the customer can access Internet telephony service through any hosting web server (where one of the universal Internet based telephony system""s affiliate links resides) as the access point, and by using the existing Internet browser software that is resident on any multi-media terminal device. In addition, the universal Internet based telephony system process can be installed on any web server and the routing of the Internet telephony calls from the web server to the designated destination is implemented as a background process via an Internet telephony server/network, in a manner that is transparent to the customer if the customer chooses, as the universal Internet based telephony system page opens a new browser session in a new window which can be minimized during the conversation allowing the user to continue browsing the site from which he/she initiated the universal Internet based telephony system icon while talking to the called party.
Furthermore, in some embodiments the web page can present a plurality of universal Internet based telephony system icons, with the icons representing either general Internet telephony service access or xe2x80x9chard-wiredxe2x80x9d access to dedicated destinations. Thus, the consumer who accesses a particular web server that hosts a commercial enterprise affiliated with (e.g., has contracted for service with) an Internet telephony service provider can be provided with one xe2x80x9chard-wiredxe2x80x9d icon (e.g., to a general merchant call center) or a plurality of universal Internet based telephony system icons which are representative of a number of destination choices, such as: customer service, sales, product support, manufacturer""s service representative, etc. By selecting one of these dedicated destination icons, the customer activates the universal Internet based telephony system to automatically initiate an Internet telephony call to the identified destination while concurrently maintaining the customer""s access to the present web page. The Internet telephony call that is originated from the customer""s computer is routed to an Internet telephony host which connects the customer to the universal Internet based telephony system, which completes the call to the called party without the calling party having to enter any identification information of the called party. The system can therefore be used to route customer inquiries to predefined or dynamically defined destinations while the customer concurrently has access to the data provided by the web page. The invention further provides for screen pops at a computer display associated with the called party and synchronization of displays between the called and calling parties (e.g., the customer computer and a computer or terminal associated with the customer service representative).